1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of connectors, more specifically to the field of backplane related connectors.
2. Description of Related Art
Backplane connectors are known. They are typically used to couple two separate boards (e.g., between a communication board and a processor board) so as to enable high speed communication between different portions of a computing system. In general, backplane connectors tend to offer dense pin fields and are configured for high data rates. For example, recent backplane designs have allowed data rates that are greater than 10 Gbps and new designs are intended to allow data rates of 20 Gbps or more.
Typically backplane connectors are provided in what is known as a mezzanine configuration or an orthogonal configuration. Mezzanine connectors are used to couple together two boards that are parallel while orthogonal connectors couple boards that are positioned at right angles (e.g., boards that are orthogonal to each other). Due to system configurations, sometimes a mid-plane design is also used to couple together two connector configurations on opposite sides of the mid-plane. For example, a mid-plane board could couple together two orthogonal connectors. Existing mid-plane designs, however, create problems as the data rates increase. Thus certain individuals would appreciate an improved connector system suitable for high data rates.